From the Pulpit...

A new dispensation begins with Noah leaving the Ark and the revelation that God gives in this chapter. We call it the dispensation of human government because man is given the ultimate sanction: capital punishment. This implies a governmental structure where man in his corporate arrangements can mete out such punishment on individuals. We assume then that God permits less severe sanctions. Certain responsibilities and promises from this chapter carry on today. God wants the human race to reproduce, but people want to depopulate, abort, and birth-control their way out of that responsibility. The rainbow certainly is still with us, though it has been invalidly appropriated by those who oppose God’s morality. Capital punishment is still permitted for those who are murderers, but mankind has become squishy and does not want to implement God’s directive. Lawlessness abounds and where punishment is not swift and certain, lawlessness only grows. We can still eat meat, but some of us eat too much and others claim it is cruel to do so. It would be hard to say that this chapter of the Bible is irrelevant today, even though it records events and God’s instructions from 5,000 years ago!